37 Days (2014) DVD9

Covering the final weeks before the outbreak of war, 37 Days follows the rapidly changing crisis through the eyes of the principal players, during a hot summer, from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914, to the declaration of war between Britain and Germany on 4 August. The drama serial will overturn orthodox assumptions about the war's inevitability. Such a disaster did not happen by chance, and nor was it a foregone conclusion. It took considerable effort and terrific ingenuity, as well as staggering bad luck, to destroy a system that had kept the general peace in Europe for the 99 years that followed the Battle of Waterloo and the fall of Napoleon.
The miniseries is a mixture of drama and documentary, its tone is somewhat aseptically dry in which many details are simplified, but it highlights some aspects in order to answer the question that the viewer makes constantly: how we go from peace to war in just over a month?

Episode 1: One Month In Summer
The British Foreign Office, led by foreign secretary Sir Edward Grey, receives news of an assassination in the Balkans. In Berlin, the kaiser thinks he can exploit it for his own advantage.

Episode 2: One Week In July
War in Europe is becoming a real possibility. Under pressure from the cabinet, the British foreign secretary unravels a tangled web of intrigue between Austria, Germany, Russia and France, while the German military command conspires to force the kaiser's hand. Who will gain the upper hand?

Episode 3: One Long Weekend
The last hours of peace. With the continental powers pushed to the brink, Sir Edward Grey seems unsure of whether to keep Britain out of the conflict. Desperate negotiations, resignations and a battle of wills in the Cabinet reach a crescendo with Germany's ultimatum to Belgium. Which way will Britain go?